When Square debuted its Avengers project yesterday, several fans noted the similarities between the game and Marvel’s recent films. Both projects start with the Avengers disgraced – having failed a mission – then jump forward in time.

Obviously, Crystal Dynamics has been in the works for years, so what’s up with this strange parallel? We asked Crystal Dynamics’ Head of Studio Scot Amos about these similarities and this is what he had to say:

“I would say that this is several years of us working on this. Going back quite a ways, from a storyline perspective, we asked where do we want this to go? The Marvel team has been with us from the beginning and so we’ve all known hints of what’s going on across the Avengers franchise in general, but we want to do an original story and an original take on the Avengers. Of course, where are things people expect at this point in that arc. We wanted to do it our way. We want people to be able to say, ‘Wow, these heroes, I’ve seen this happen in some other way.’ Or ‘I’ve seen this reference before.’ If you look at some of the different MCU products, I can see references that come from the comics, but it’s not about that story is actually one of those fan service references. For us, we want to be inspirational, that’s awesome, but it’s not a game of the movies. It’s an original story.”

In short, it sounds like Crystal Dynamics knew of some of the big beats in the MCU, but isn’t necessarily trying to follow the narratives from the film.